On the Count of Three, page 7
Well that answered one question. Jenna had been the one to make the charge. Thanks to Tommy, they also knew that she normally came here on Sundays, though Gordon had never heard of the place. Maybe she normally paid cash. If so, had Jenna intentionally kept the place from her husband for some reason? Zach’s heart ticked up a few notches. He was about to dive into territory he’d rather avoid, but he plunged ahead anyhow. “Was she here alone?”
“Yes and no. She came in by herself, but she wasn’t ever alone. Some guy buddied up to her for a while.”
“Did you recognize him, as well?” Paige asked.
“Maybe from another time he came in?” Zach added. Another man didn’t mean Jenna had been cheating and had left Gordon. It could just mean that their unsub knew when to find Jenna at this bar.
Tommy shook his head. “Don’t remember seeing him before last night. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t been here before but he’s not a regular.”
“You said this guy buddied up to her for a while? Did it seem they knew each other?” Zach took a jaunt down the path he didn’t want to travel.
Tommy smirked. “I don’t think so. And he was laying it on thick. Even used a lame pickup line about heaven missing an angel or some shit.”
Paige snuffed out a laugh. “How did she react to that?”
Tommy stared at Paige for a few seconds. Neither of them said anything.
“You really don’t know? That lady—” Tommy pointed to Zach’s phone “—is a lesbian.”
Now that was a curveball that hit Zach in the head. Paige, too, judging by her agape mouth.
Tommy leaned forward. “You didn’t know?”
“She’s married—to a man,” Zach said. Not that it necessarily meant anything these days.
Tommy pointed a finger at Zach. “Now that surprises me.”
“This might seem like a stupid question, but how do you know she preferred women?” Paige asked.
“Remember how I told you she used to always come in on Sundays? Well, it was with a woman, and let me tell you, they were more than friends.”
“Did this woman show up last night, too?” Paige asked.
“Uh-huh.” Tommy swept his tongue over his lips. “They were making out at the bar like a couple of teenagers, giving every man in sight a hard-on.”
Comments like that right there led to the misconception that chivalry was a thing of the past. Zach cleared his throat. “What can you tell us about that woman?”
Tommy remained silent.
“What’s her name?” Zach asked, taking another stab.
Tommy winced.
“Now’s not the time to clam up. This woman—” he shook his phone, referring to Kelter’s photo “—is missing, and we believe she might be in danger. This friend of hers might be able to help us find her.” He’d stick with the theory they were here to chase down unless indisputable evidence pointed in another direction. Though with every ticking second, Zach feared that whatever Jack’s personal connection was to Kelly, it might have been clouding his judgment and had him taking on this case prematurely.
Tommy studied Zach. Seconds ticked off. “Her name is Stella.”
The same Stella that Kelter had been celebrating with the night of her accident? “Last name?”
“I don’t know that. But I do know where she lives.” Tommy proceeded to give them directions and added, “It’s some wealthy oceanside community. The chick’s loaded. She’s some world-renowned heart surgeon or something. She’s got looks and money, but she’s a ballbuster. Hates men. Apparently always has.”
The Stella who Kelter had been with the night of her accident was a heart surgeon…
“Did Jenna leave with Stella?” Zach was being swayed further toward Kelter leaving her husband, despite feeling like he was betraying Jack somehow. Kelter could be laughing it up with her lover right then.
“Yeah, I assume so. I had to go back to the kitchen for something, but when I returned to the floor, both of them were gone.”
“What time was that?” Paige asked.
“Around eleven.”
The time of the charge to Kelter’s card confirmed his intel. In case Zach’s suspicions about Kelter’s “disappearance” were incorrect, it was best they leave here as armed as possible. “You wouldn’t happen to have security video we could take with us? One that maybe captures the entire bar area?”
“Yep. We do.”
Zach stepped back. No request for a warrant and no line about the cameras being around for show. “What about one in the lot?”
“Can’t help you out there.”
Zach nodded. One out of two wasn’t bad. At least they had indoor footage.
Tommy pulled the keyboard tray out all the way. “Just give me a few minutes.” He clicked the keys, moved the mouse around, grabbed a USB drive out of a desk drawer, and popped it into the computer. A few more keystrokes and Tommy handed them the data stick. “Here you go.”
Paige took it from him. “Thank you.”
“Anything I can do to help law enforcement.” Tommy’s sentiment fell flat, but Paige smiled anyhow. Likely that good-cop role resurfacing. It brought Zach back to how strangely Tommy had been acting when they had first shown up… Before he’d ask Tommy for an alibi, there were a couple other things Zach wanted to cover.
“Just a few more questions,” Zach interjected.
Tommy looked at him. “Sure.”
“What time did Jenna get here last night?”
“Somewhere between eight thirty and nine.”
“And Stella joined her at what time?” Zach asked.
“Say nine thirty?”
“All right, just one more thing before we go. Where did you go after your shift, and can anyone attest to it?”
“You think I’m involved somehow?” Panic streaked across Tommy’s face.
“It’s just part of the job,” Paige stepped in, smoothing things over. “We have to ask.”
“I got home at three thirty this morning by the time I got things sorted here,” Tommy offered, not seeming impressed by the need to account for his whereabouts. “My roommate can vouch for me, if that’s necessary. Ron, one of my employees, can confirm I was working until three.”
Paige nodded. “Is Ron here now?”
Tommy shook his head.
“We’ll need his number,” she said. “And your roommate’s contact information, too.”
Tommy scribbled both on a piece of paper and handed it to Paige. “Now, if that’s all, I should get back to work.”
“We’ll see ourselves out,” Zach said.
His stomach rumbled as he and Paige walked through the restaurant to the exit. He could normally pass on seafood, but the aromas of butter and garlic were killing him. It was lunch time, though, and breakfast was long gone. But eating would have to be quick, and it would probably come in a paper bag delivered through a drive-thru window. They had another lead to follow.
-
Eleven
Jack wasn’t taking the news about Kelter’s relationship with Stella Bridges well—at all. He’d smoked two cigarettes since we’d found out, and he smelled like a human ashtray sitting next to me at the conference room table.
Paige and Zach had filled us in on their visit to Magical Bar & Grill and had dropped off the security video. Now they were following their lead to Stella’s front door while Jack and I stayed back at the police station. They were having all the fun so far, but at least we had a “movie” to watch. It would provide us some visual context to the manager’s testimony and might even provide us with some useful information.
Jack was breathing heavily, and it didn’t take a profiler to know that he was mad. Probably more at himself than anyone else. I’d be angry with myself if I were in his position, too. After all, he’d broken his own rule about letting emotions factor into the job. There was no way around it: Jack’s connection to Marsh had pushed him to act prematurely. Nothing else could explain his swift—and unprecedented—reaction to a missing person report. Twenty-four hours hadn’t even passed before we all hopped on a plane down here. I hoped it wasn’t going to bite Jack in the ass, but attempting to make him feel better would be useless. For one, Jack didn’t take to coddling, and two, I respected him too much to try.
He was pawing through the hate mail on the table, though not really looking at it. I’d never seen him so fidgety before. It was as if he was in a holding pattern until we received an update on Stella Bridges.
“We might find a lead among the different letters,” he deadpanned.
I hated seeing this man in place of the almighty and confident Jack Harper.
I nodded. “Makes sense.”
The silence might as well have been thunder, and I itched to fill the silence. “While you were out earlier, I verified Ava Jett’s alibis and pulled the background on the manager from the bar. He had a bit of a rap sheet, but no offenses in the last eight years. Before that, he had two charges of drug possession and served minimal jail time. Nothing to indicate that he is a cold-blooded killer.” I looked at Jack, expecting some snarky response about paperwork not necessarily showing a person’s true colors, but he gave me nothing. I cleared my throat and continued. “If he’s behind any murders, nothing points that way on paper.”
“Did his alibis check out?” was all Jack asked.
I nodded.
“That leaves us with the video.” He gestured to the laptop in front of me where the opening image of the video was frozen on the screen.
I fast-forwarded to 8:50 and saw Kelter take a seat at the bar. By nine, a man sat on her left and tapped her on the arm. Her facial expression and body language indicated that she wanted him to go away. She leaned away from him and kept putting her left elbow on the bar, erecting a barrier between them. The guy refused to take the hint. He tapped her shoulder a few times, and it only made Kelter wriggle farther from him.
After about thirty minutes of that, throughout which I was impressed by Kelter’s self-control, a woman came up to Kelter and kissed her on the mouth.
“Stella Bridges,” I said.
The man watched them for a while but then left without looking back. And any heterosexual man wouldn’t have blamed him if he had.
Jack and I continued watching until the two women staggered out of the bar, arm in arm.
I stopped the video, my stomach roiling for Jack. He got up and headed for the door. Some people drowned their stress and regrets in booze, but Jack smoked his away.
I felt so bad for him that a very small part of me almost wished we were wrong to suspect Kelter had left her husband.
-
Twelve
Cold air blasted from the vents, but the hot sunshine coming through the windshield was the victor. It was like winter and summer were competing, or maybe even trying to coexist. Zach entertaining the idea that he could be a father and a field agent felt much the same. Regardless, people had been choosing between career and family since the start of civilized society. It wasn’t like he was the first person to deal with this, so why should he consider his circumstances anything special? If only he didn’t love his job so much, it would be far easier to keep family in first place.
Zach and Paige were on the way to Stella Bridges’s house. It was possible they’d find Kelter there, but if not, it would seem Bridges was one of the last people to see Kelter before she disappeared.
“I can’t imagine what poor Jack’s thinking right now,” Paige said.
Zach hadn’t wanted to bring the matter into the light again, but now that Paige had… “He’s likely feeling like he jumped the gun.”
“But the director wouldn’t have approved the investigation if Jack was jumping the gun, right?” Paige looked pensive, as if she was unsure whose side she was on. Did the blame rest on Jack for making the wrong judgment call or on the shoulders of the FBI director who had approved the investigation? Did it even matter?
Zach went to pull into Stella Bridges’s drive, but another car cut him off and butted in ahead of him.
Paige leaned forward and lifted her sunglasses. “Is that Marsh?”
Both vehicles stopped and parked in front of a wrought iron gate. Beyond it were well-groomed lawns, palm trees, and magnolia trees. Tucked deeper into the property was the house, its roofline all that was visible from where Zach and Paige sat.
They got out of the SUV, and sure enough, Kelly was walking toward them.
Despite the silver-mirrored lenses of her sunglasses, she was squinting, the skin pinching around her eyes. “What brought you guys here?”
Paige pointed toward the house. “Stella Bridges was with Kelter last night at a place called Magical Bar & Grill.”
“Well, that’s good. It gives us a lead on the timeline.” Kelly glanced at Zach and let her gaze trail back to Paige. “What is it?”
“Jack didn’t call you?” Paige asked.
“Noooooo.” Kelly dragged out the word.
“We think Kelter might have left Gordon for Stella,” Zach laid out, not bothering to ask Kelly what brought her to Bridges’s front door.
“They were lovers?” Kelly raised her brows, skeptical.
“It would seem,” Zach said.
“No.” Kelly shook her head rapidly. “There’s more to this. I just know that Kelter’s been taken by a serial killer.”
Zach appreciated Kelly’s conviction, but he wasn’t convinced just yet. “Until we actually have evidence of that…”
“Kelter could be inside,” Paige stressed.
“No.” Kelly shook her head. “I’m not buying that. The victimology lines up with West and Sullivan.”
They could stand there all day arguing about how they could look at things, but it wasn’t going to get them anywhere. “We need to talk to Stella to find out what’s going on,” Zach said.
“Sure, but I’m hanging around.” Kelly walked up to the intercom, Zach and Paige flanking her. She reached out to push the intercom button, but Paige stayed her hand.
“You never told us what brought you here,” Paige said.
Kelly drew her hand back. “Jenna’s friend Carrie told me that Jenna hadn’t been going to church for years before her accident. She said she’d stopped not long after becoming friends with Stella Bridges. I was hoping to get some insight into their friendship, thinking maybe Stella might know where Jenna actually went on Sundays. From there maybe figure out when and where she was abducted.”
Paige turned to Zach. “Seems another skeleton came out of the closet,” she said.
Kelly didn’t question Paige’s comment and rang the intercom.
“Who is it?” a quiet woman’s voice said over the speaker.
“Miami PD and the FBI, ma’am,” Kelly announced. “We’d like to speak with Stella Bridges.”
“May I tell her what this is regarding?” the woman asked.
“I’m sorry, but that’s between us and Ms. Bridges.”
After a moment’s pause, a buzzing sound cut through the air, and the three of them loaded back into their vehicles. As Zach drove down the serpentine drive, he admired the landscaping. Mature palm trees and lush gardens provided hues of green and splashes of reds and yellows. The lawn was immaculately manicured and had been cut on an angle.
The end of the lane curved around a fountain with a stone sculpture in the center, which depicted a woman draped in flowing cloth holding a tilted amphora. Water poured out of its spout into a circular basin.
Zach parked at the top of the drive, taking in the building. It was two stories with a spread-out floor plan. A second-story balcony was perched above the doorway and decorated with furniture and oversized potted plants. Zach assumed it was more for show than use. It was nice, but if this were his place, he’d never leave the front of the house, which overlooked the water.
He appreciatively breathed in the salty air that carried on a gentle and somewhat cool breeze as he walked to the door that faced the road. It was black with an arched top, and it towered over his six-foot-four height by about two feet. He’d expected that the woman from the intercom would be at the door waiting to greet them, but it remained closed. He searched for the doorbell, but Paige got there first.
Footsteps were approaching from the other side, and the door slowly swung open. A woman stood there tying the belt on a sheer wraparound that draped her small frame. Beneath the coverup, she wore a patterned blue bikini. Sunglasses were perched on the top of her head. Piercing gray metallic eyes studied them. Even if her profession didn’t give away her intelligence, her discerning gaze did.
“What do you want?” she asked abruptly as she walked around them and closed the door. She smelled of coconut oil and sun-kissed skin.
Zach flashed his creds. “FBI Agent Miles. This is my colleague Agent Dawson.” He tilted his head toward Paige, then gestured to Kelly.
“I’m Detective Marsh with Miami PD, Central District, Homicide.” Kelly showed her badge.
Stella squared her shoulders. “And what brings you here?”
“Do you have someplace we could sit down?” Zach eyed the sunken living room and the wall of windows beyond it. The view of the water was breathtaking.
Stella put her hands on her hips, a diamond tennis bracelet dangling from her left wrist. “Tell me what this is about first.”
“You’re friends with Jenna Kelter, correct?” Kelly asked before Zach could speak.
“Okay, I’ll play along.” Stella reached into one of the pockets of her wraparound and glanced at her cell phone. “Sure, we’re friends.”
“Is she here, ma’am?” Zach asked, drawing a hot glare from Stella. There was the ballbuster Tommy had mentioned.
